TIm Holtz 12 Tags of 2014 June

Hey, Happy  Monday to you, hope you had a great weekend.
I am so last minute (again) posting my June T!m tag, good job there is the difference in time zones is all I can say.
I followed T!m's tutorial  here  but I must say getting a result that I was happy with from the water colour monoprint technique took me 3 attempts. I used the speckles stencil first but thought the colours were  too muddy so I tried the doily stencil (twice) and didn't like those either. I decided to stamp up my first attempt thinking the butterflies would cover most of the muddy part and see how it looked. I thought it wasn't too bad so carried on and finished it off.
I really enjoyed making this months tag and realise I definitely need those mini Distress inks, it would have  been much easier to  apply smaller amounts of ink to the stencil.
I love the Paula Cheney bow, so easy when you know how eh.
So  am I happy with this tag?
Yes I am!  and the funny thing is, is that the thing I love most about my tag
is that area of muddy inking at the bottom of the tag.
Ahh well alls well that ends well, as they say.
Have a great week
Happy Art making
Hugs Lottie x

NBUS Challenge # 1

I am here with a card today to join in with Darnells brand new NBUS challenge, Darnell coined the acronym heself, which by the way means  "never-before-used schtuff"  as a way to motivate herself  to use products that she had bought, won or received as a gift that had been put away and forgotten about.

 I think most of us will be a tad guilty of that.

 So when she reached the awesome target of 500 followers she wanted to mark the occasion with something different and came up with the "I love to play at NBUS" challenge.

 If you click on the link bellow it will take you to Darnell's blog where you can find out all the information you need to take part.

                                                              NBUS Challenge # 1

 

Challenge # 1 is 

"ANYTHING GOES" and the theme is Friendship.

For my card I have used my NBUS Chocolate Baroque Home Sweet Home stamp set ( I think I've only had them for about two years (eek, slap my wrist)

I coloured the image using distress markers also NBUS and a water brush, I used Tim Holtz Rays embossing folder with distress inks for the background and the sentiment was a digital freebie from' t tinterweb ( bit of Yorkshire speak ). I am unusually quite pleased how it turned out.

So  I must dash I am so last minute I think I will prolly be the last person to use Mr Linky

Thank you Darnell for having this super idea and encouraging us to play along I think it's gonna be a great success. Mwahhh

Happy Art making

Hugs Lottie x

WOYWW # 264

It's Wednesday and that means it's WOYWW  which stands for .......
'What's On Your Work desk Wednesday'.

If you too would like to join in the fun then, take a picture of your work desk, table, etc. and share it with lots of other like minded people.

Hop on over to Julia's blog   Stamping Ground  for more info. Hope to see you there

                                            ............................................................................

Hello desk hoppers.

 

I hope everyone is tickety boo today, I am feeling somewhat less frazzled as it is a little cooler today so I feel less like a wet dishcloth!  Why do we get such horrid humid and muggy days for our summer? 

I haven't been too busy in the craft room department either, but I have managed to photograph the ATC's that I received from the WOYWW anniversary swap.

It is so exciting finding one of these little beauties behind the door.

 

From the left

Anne @ Copper Beech Crafts  

BJ @ ccraftcorner

Darnell @ djkardkreations

Bella @ Bella"s Scrappin Space

 

In the foreground are 6 cutlery pouches that Bella sent me, aren't they great and I love the elephant card, as I told Bella I was born in Africa but don't remember much as we returned to the UK just before my 5th birthday, but I do feel I have a connection with the country and would love to one day go back.

Thank you again ladies for your gorgeous mini works of art x

Looking forward to receiving yours Kay I see it is in the post :))

 

So, also on my desk are are some NBUS stamps, hi Darnell ;) from Chocolate Baroque a T!m Holtz embossing folder and my circle dies that I am trying to create a card with.

You know when you get an idea for creating something in your head, only it doesn't work when you actually try it out ? well I am at that stage at the mo. Ah well, back to the drawing board as they say.  

I will leave you with a pic of the ATC's I made for the swap, 

 

 and hope my swapee's received a colour they liked and are not looking and wishing, "Ooo I wish I got the  yellow, blue, plum, pink, purple one" !!!!! lol

Enjoy your desk hopping

Happy Art making

Hugs

Lottie x

WOYWW #261

It's Wednesday and that means it's WOYWW  which stands for .......
'What's On Your Work desk Wednesday'.

If you too would like to join in the fun then, take a picture of your work desk, table, etc. and share it with lots of other like minded people.

Hop on over to Julia's blog   Stamping Ground  for more info. Hope to see you there.

Hello desk hoppers,

So, are all you organised ATC swappers sitting back and breathing a satisfied sigh after the  flurry of  what to make, what to use, what colour, what style etc. etc. is finally achieved, accomplished and posted. I know some ladies actually posted their ATC swaps in time for their recipients to actually receive them on or even before the actual swap date................ or, are there others out there who like me are playing catchup, I hope I am not alone! Any way I have finally finished mine and they are on there way (sigh). 

Thank you BJ for your perfect ATC love it, yours should be with you soon.

Better get down to business, here is my desk.

My desk is still as it was yesterday, apart from the new goodies at the back that Malcolm the DPD delivery man brought me today. I know what you must be thinking, that I must get a lot of parcels if I am on fist name terms with the delivery man, but no, with DPD you can track your parcel on line and they tell you who your delivery man will be, what number parcel you are, where he is on his route and what time he will arrive, Malcolm arrived within a minute of the expected time. Brilliant!

The butterflies and wink of stella are from a birthday card I made for my friends birthday (see pic below). 

My T!m tag is still on show as................. I only went and "bloomin" got picked as a WINNER on his blog! I couldn't believe it, Woohoo, THE MILKY BARS ARE ON ME!!!  :-)))

That's pretty much it really, the plastic box has card scraps in for using with the butterfly die and the other box has all the waste bits from the die cut which I keep to use on future cards, like this one.

Hopefully next week I will be able to show the ATC cards I made and the swaps I'm looking forward to  receiving.

I'm off now to have a play with my new goodies and make a cuppa to have with my Milky Bar! Seriously, I really want, no make that neeeed one of those bars of chocolate. nom nom! 

Have a happy desk hopping Wednesday and

Happy Art making

Hugs Lottie x

WOYWW # 260

It's Wednesday and that means WOYWW which, I'm sure you are dying  to know, stands for .......
'What's On Your Work desk Wednesday'. If you too would like to join in the fun then, take a pic of your work desk and share it with lots of other 'nosey', I mean like minded people.

Hop on over to Julia's blog   Stamping Ground  for more info. Hope to see you there.

To mark the fifth anniversary of WOYWW, which is this week we are going to trade or gift ATC's if you would like to join in the fun click here for more info.

 

Happy Anniversary Julia

Hi desk hoppers,

It's hard to believe another year has rolled by and WOYWW is in it's 5th year, doesn't time fly when your having fun!  So without further ado...............................Here is my desk.

My desk is fairly tidy (for me) as I just finished my May tag for T!m Holtz 12 Tags of 2014 on Monday and had to seriously tidy up. So on my desk you can see my new DI storage system. They are laser cut ready to assemble MDF, I have made up five of the trays so far only another 45 to go eek! I'm gonna need a bigger bottle of glue me thinks.
The block in the middle of my desk is my home made glue bottle holder, which I found out while assembling, was something I absolutely needed. This was a joint effort by Mr and me, he knocked together some bits of wood and I artistically decorated it with paint and pretty paper, perfect!
The mobile phone stand is all my own work made from a mini easel, chipboard, the same paint and paper line.
The basket to the right has my paraphernalia for T!ms April tag in it (and some of the new shadow press folders from this months tag) err yes I know it's May but I have been otherwise occupied,  I will get a round tuit ....honest!
In front of the basket are my blending blocks another team effort from Mr and me (what would I do without him x)
The picture of a girl on her bike is a cross stitched piece I made for my daughter quite a number of years ago, and is waiting to have the frame re painted to match her bedroom.
The black plaque to the left I bought to maybe alter as it was only £1 as was the ribbon, just loved that shade of green.
And that as they say, is that !
I will be taking part in the ATC swap and look forward  to finding out who my recipient will be.
If anyone else  is interested I would be happy to do a swap with you too just email me with your address.
Enjoy your desk hopping and
Happy Art making
Hugs Lottie x

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2014 May

Youhoo !!  Hi, Hello there, G'day Bonjour, Gutentag, Ciao, Hola, 

How is everyone on this fine (well I hope it is where you are) Bank holiday Monday? enjoying doing something you like, I hope.

Ok so that's the pleasantries out of the way, now down to business!

I am listening to Glen Campbell while I sit here playing on my blog, I would insert a smiley face here if I only knew how :-) best I can do lol. 

As you can see I have managed to make this months T!m tag, pretty much as per his instructions here.

I  used the oval frame from the Tag and Book plates die and used the same technique as T!m used on January's Pocket Watch Tag, 

 I liked how it turned out but it did seem to take up more space on the tag and I was limited then on how many embellishments I could fit on. I didn't have T!ms wallflower paper stack so used Docrafts Madame Payrauds paper line and shock horror you will no doubt have spotted the imposter trying to blend in as a bona fide T!m trinket, yep the heart wings lol, in my defence they were just the right size and hey I like them ! I used Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord and edged with Frayed Burlap DI though in the photo's my tag looks very pink. Love the new shadow press de-bossing folders, you get a great look and there are some fab words.

I have just spotted in my photo's that the trinket pin is missing from the top of the tag, all I can say is that it refused point blank to be seen on the same tag as "the imposter" and muttered something about did I not know about it's famous lineage, or maybe it's just because I forgot!!

So, overall I enjoyed making T!m's May tag, it was a little bit fiddly and I can't tell you how many times I moved everything round trying to find the right place for each piece  but I suppose there isn't really a right or wrong way and I'm fairly happy with the end result so it's all good and I'm looking forward to the next one.

I'm now off to see if I can upload it over at T!m's place and have a shufty at everybody else's masterpieces. Glen has packed his guitar away and is heading off back to the homestead so I will say ta ta for now. Take care and

Happy Art making

Hugs Lottie x

Purple Poppy

I love the colour purple, I love Poppy's and I love my mum!

 

Hello peeps,

 

Goodness me I can't believe we are into April already, it doesn't seem like two minutes since we took the Christmas tree down, then all too soon the Easter bunny will be hopping along.

So seeing as my New Years resolution was to try and post more frequently (trying but not always succeeding) I thought I would share  this card with you today that I made for Mothers day. 

My mum passed away suddenly in 1995  and I usually make a card for her birthday, mothers day etc.

I recently bought this lovely new Memory box Perky Poppy die and seeing as Poppy's represent remembrance  I thought it would be ideal for my Mothers day card.

I started by cutting the whole shape out of my white card front topper, I then cut a piece of  paper slightly smaller than the topper and used a tape runner all over one side and stuck it to the back of the topper so that the sticky tape is showing through the poppy aperture. I then cut the Poppy out again in purple, green and black card, edged with DI then popped the different pieces back into the main die cut Poppy shape.

I cut the stamens and a couple of the leaves again and decoupaged them for added dimension. 

The sentiment is from Lili of the Valley and to finish off I added some shading round the Poppy and Distress inked around the outside of the card and sentiment. 

I love how it turned out and think mum would like it too. 

As I already said, I love purple, I love poppy's and I love my mum.

 

By the way I must say a big "THANK YOU" (said in a hi pitched giddy voice) to Katie and Oliver for my own wonderful Mothers day gift of,  the full set of t!ms Distress Markers !!!!!

Woohoo! doing a happy dance :-))

Hope your week is filled with crafty delights too.

 

Happy Art making

Hugs 

Lottie x